Cubans say thank you TT... 40 years later

Rojo was the fiveyear- old son of one of the 68 passengers and five crew members who were killed aboard the Douglas DC-8 aircraft.

Now a member of the Committee of Families Against Terrorism, and also the Vice-president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People (ICAP) to visit the US, he said yesterday, “To the people and Government of TT many thanks. We will always carry in our hearts the gratitude to them for what they did back then in 1976.” That year, Randolph Burroughs, as Assistant Commissioner of Police went to the Holiday Inn one day after the bombing, and dressed as a bell boy, nabbed the suspects, Hern?n Ricardo Lozano and Freddy Lugo, who flew back to Trinidad en route to Venezuela to reunite with masterminds of the bombing Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles.

Lugo and Lozano were each sentenced to 20-year prison terms, while Bosch was acquitted and later moved to Miami, Florida, where he lived until his death in April 2011, and Carriles was held for eight years while awaiting a final sentence but eventually fled to the US where he was held on charges of entering the country illegally, but was released in 200 7.

Rojo and compatriot Fernando Gonz?lez, one of the famous “Cuban Five” who was wrongfully jailed in the US for 16 years but who was released when the US and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations in 2014, said: “We took part in the unveiling of a plaque at the (Piarco International) Airport honouring the 73 victims of that terrorist act which is a comfort to myself knowing that the government of Trinidad and Tobago have found a place where the victims can be remembered, and I had the great opportunity to express my gratitude to the Minister of National Security on behalf of my families and myself for the actions of the TT police back then.” He added, “My father’s remains were never recovered. These have been very intense and emotional days for me but I think they have been very important for myself in order to be able to come and have closure of the issue of losing my father.

Rojo and Gonz?lez have been in Barbados and TT for the past week to be a part of activities commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Cubana Airline bombing.

It is the first time Rojo is back in the region since losing his father.

Gonz?lez said another one of the activities was the launch of the Caribbean Chapter Network in Defence of Humanity, an international campaign to have the United Nations establish October 6, as International Day Against Terrorism.

He said, “As a fighter against terrorism myself I have served 16 years in prison in the USA for trying to stop terrorists in the US to carry out acts of terror against Cuba. I think it’s worth supporting that initiative.” Also present at the press conference were Clyde Callender, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Friends of Cuba and Cuban Ambassador Vazquez Moreno who endorsed all what Gonzales had to say.